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The International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) held its fifth plenary meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina from November 29, 2017 to December 1, 2017. The meeting was hosted by Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship. Twenty-two states, both with and without nuclear weapons, participated in the meeting and discussed the completion of Phase I of the Partnership’s work, as well as launched Phase II.

The Partnership will make public a Phase I Summary Report, a Walkthrough Exercise Summary, and over 35 written products developed over the last two years. The Phase I Summary Report highlights the Partnership’s key judgement that while tough challenges remain, potentially applicable technologies, information barriers, and inspection procedures provide a path forward that should make possible multilaterally monitored nuclear warhead dismantlement while successfully managing safety, security, non-proliferation, and classification concerns in a future nuclear disarmament agreement.

These reports and written products will be housed on the Partnership’s new website (www.ipndv.org), which is hosted by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). This new website will serve as a focal point for those interested in nuclear disarmament verification to keep up with the progress of the IPNDV. In addition to these products, the website will host an infographic depicting a notional nuclear weapon dismantlement process and potential procedures and technologies to effectively monitor the process.

At the conclusion of the fifth plenary, the Partnership agreed to launch Phase II, which will focus on: broadening and deepening the work of the Partnership on specific elements of verification; developing potential approaches to effective monitoring and verification; and demonstrating its work through exercises and technical demonstrations. Three working groups have been established to focus on how to verify nuclear weapons declarations, how to verify reductions of nuclear weapons, and verification technologies. The Phase II Program of Work will be available on the IPNDV website.